Letters

NOT AN ORGANIC BUREAUCRAT IN SIGHT
Not a bad article at all by Mr. Semple regarding the demise of the Grove farmers' market ("Pave It to Save It," July 8).

The mind-numbing lack of foresight that the city administrators habitually show never ceases to amaze me. They, in fact, bewilder me. I have come to the conclusion (forgive me if I slight someone's character unintentionally) that a job requirement for public administrators is that they must try their very best to show complete disregard, at all times, for what the public wants.

I find it hard to imagine that 1300 people are being ignored in their resounding desire to keep the market the way it is. Yet sadly this appears to be the case.

I also find it hard to believe that out of 1300 people there is not one individual or group of persons who know effectively how to deal with petty bureaucracy a little better than what is happening now. Cannot someone assist Mr. Glasner in his efforts to keep the market open in its organic form? Is there no legal knight in shining armor out there?

Perhaps Mr. Semple, since he is so adroit at stating the obvious, knows how to deal with the situation as opposed to simply commenting on it. Where does he, and therefore New Times, stand on this issue, and I mean stand, not just narrate?

Brian Mills
Miami?

CHAUNCEY, HMMM: DEFINITELY NOT A LOCAL
Hmm. Hmm. G. Powell. Powell. Doesn't sound like a Native American name to me ("Letters," July 8). I wonder where Mr. Powell's ancestors came from, and why they didn't stay there and work for change.

I can't take much more of this. When will these idiots realize that we all came from somewhere else?

Don Chauncey
South Miami

THE BALLAD OF GERM CITY
Let me thank Kirk Semple for one of the most soulful and heart-moving articles ever written ("Germ City," June 24).

When I looked in the newspaper and saw his piece, I did not want to stop until I read the whole thing. Then I got my scissors and cut out the pages. Then I stapled them from top to bottom, because something came over me like nothing I have ever felt before. I wanted to set music to his words.

I am very familiar with that neighborhood. I certify your article and say: There is no excuse for Mayor Suarez, Police Chief Ross, and the other elected politicians' doing nothing while crack cocaine dealers, waste and pollution, and all other crime and corruption turn a neighborhood into the name of Germ City. They allow landlords to get away with the unlawful crimes and not pay a fine or serve some time.

Now what's on my mind:
Germ City is not Dit-Wa-Ditti/But in Miami, Florida, and the elected politicians have no pity.

Black people live in an area, for children, that is a disgrace, and a filthy place/Where crack, coke, killing, and crime go on all the time.

The mayor don't care/Urban renewal and beautification is badly needed there/It is inhumane that the environment is a crying shame/I hold the mayor, the chief of police, and all the other elected politicians to blame.

King Coleman
South Miami

LICK THAT STAMP! GRAB THAT MUGGER!
We thank you very much for your attention to our case, by publishing Jim DeFede's very good article of criminal incidents at the Little River Post Office in the July 1 issue ("Please Mr. Postman"). I assure you that the community feels the same way we do -- angry and frustrated with the situation of crime in Miami.

SAUTEED NAVARRO
Through the years I have had the opportunity of meeting quite a few food critics, and I have noticed that, by nature, they seem exceedingly self-centered and self-absorbed (over-cooked?).

In fact, when they visit a restaurant for the first time and they happen to like it, they often insinuate -- either in their review or in conversations with friends -- that they actually "made" the place. They claim it as their own creature!

Consequently, when this kind of individual reviews an already successful restaurant, they find themselves struggling to understand the ingredients of its success, and I can almost hear them saying to themselves: "How could this have happened without me, the food god?!"

It is at this very moment -- a pathological one, to be sure -- that critics like Rafael Navarro feel compelled to somehow put the place down. Navarro, in his recent review of I Tre Merli ("Revenge of the Birds," July 1), acknowledged that, yes, he had a decent meal, yes, the atmosphere was a joyous one, and yes, the place was beautiful. But he then compared the restaurant to "a social setting where human hunks of meat, stylishly attired, are venerated beyond religious worship."

Navarro concluded that the restaurant is "strictly for the birds," and I must say that, as a patron, I feel quite offended.

I mean, really, what does filet of beef have to do with the bodies of a sexy crowd? Nothing at all, unless you are a critic who is out to lunch and who should be lying on an analyst's couch rather than tasting food!

Hilda Prassinos
Miami Beach

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